Learning

After all the snow and freezing temperatures, today seems almost hot in Cardiff at 10 degrees Celsius. My bulbs must have noticed too - because they have already started to grow! It really cheered me up to see some life returning to my garden!

Ysgol Porth Y Felin reported: "Now the snow has cleared we can see that the plants are growing. It is getting warmer!" Excellent news! Let me know if the bulbs in your school have started to grow or if you have seen any other signs of spring locally? Send me photographs if you have any.

At this time of year all schools taking part in this spring bulb investigation should be busy collecting weather records for a chance to win a trip and checking your bulbs daily for signs of growth. Please use the resources below to be sure to know what you are looking for and how to record properly.

• Keeping flower records
• Video diary http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/1762/
• Win a trip http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/2505/

My favourite question of the week comes from Bishop Childs C.I.W Primary. They asked: "If you plant your bulb at the same time as your partner will they open their flowers at the same time?"  Let me know what you think the answer is and I will reveal next week....

Lots of rain & floods. Unfortunately, many areas of Wales are now suffering with floods, including our museum at St Fagans. Maesycwmmer Primary School reported that they have had "A very wet week!" with over 100mm of rain in one day. Take a look at our recent weather reports sent in from schools to see how much rain they are getting. 

Across the world, many countries are suffering very badly from flooding. In Brazil, Australia and Sri Lanka floods have affected the lives of many people. Although you can't make a direct link between the recent floods and climate change, they do hold a warning for the future: Scientists predict such extreme weather events will increase both in intensity and frequency as the planet warms.

This is why the work that each spring bulb school is doing is so important - so please keep up the good work!

Professor Plant

First it was the snow and now it's the rain! The Ely burst its banks at St Fagans today and rose pretty high. A mere trickle compared to what's happening over in queensland though... You can help victims of the floods in Australia here

I've blogged about it before, but we have started a quilting club here in Oriel 1, St Fagans: National History Museum. We meet every two months on a saturday morning between 11 and 12.30, our next meeting is on 5th March. It's a relaxed and informal session with a mixture of complete beginners and people that have been quilting for a while. Samantha Jenkins is there to help out when we make quilting errors and generally to offer hints and tips.

It's been really lovely and I have started making my own quilt too

It looks pretty garish in this photo so I hope it's going to turn out ok! It would be great if the quilters in the group could email me photos of their works in progress too - my email address is sian.lile@museumwales.ac.uk

The snow and ice has meant that St Fagans:National History Museum has been closed to the public for the last few days and we've had to cancel the Christmas art cart sessions (it happened last year too!).

The plan was to make Christmas decorations, tags, cards and wrapping paper, and these are still things that you could make quite easily at home, and it's lovely and cosy to be inside making things when it's snowy outside!

A really lovely eco friendly decoration is to make strings of popcorn and fresh cranberries - you can put them on the Christmas tree like tinsel, and then in the new year but them outside for the birds! They are super easy to make - take some strong thread (i use embroidery thread), make a knot in the bottom and thread through quite a large needle. All you need to do then is to thread cranberries and popcorn through until you have a long garland - it works best with popcorn that is a little bit stale as this makes it easier to thread.

Paperchains are simple to make and look great too - you can make them out of any kinds of paper, newspaper and magazines look pretty festive. If you wanted to make it a bit fancier, why not paint the newspaper first?

You will need to cut out strips of paper about an inch wide but as long as you would like (the longer the paper the bigger the loop), take one strip and bend it to form a circle and tape or glue it together, with the next strip thread it through your original loop to make a second circle and glue that too - then just carry on until you have made your desired length!

If you want to make your own wrappping paper you could get some brown packing paper and using cookie cutters dipped in paint or carved potatoes, you can print festive shapes!

I've been making paper snowflakes to decorate my house, they look fantastic taped to windows or hanging on a string together. Snowflakes are pretty easy to make but hard to explain so have a look if you can find some instructions on the internet. If you've been to any of the art cart sessions recently, you might be familiar with one of my favourite books The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils , which has really great directions in how to make paper snowflakes and other paper shapes, there is also a second volume out too.

That should keep you busy until the New Year!

The next art club is on the 8th of January at 2pm - please book if you would like to attend - we will be starting a very important project!!

Quilting club is also on the same day at 11am - it's only are second meeting so don't be shy! We would love for some more people to come along (again, please book ahead). Details for both are on our website.

So have a happy and creative holiday and see you all in January

Just one week of school - before Christmas!

I'd like to thank all the super scientists who have been carefully recording since the 1st of November - this is now the last recording week before Christmas. It has been a very cold winter for going outside and recording so I'm delighted with the dedication each of you has shown! Thankfully, this week is a little warmer so the measuring shouldn't be so cold on the fingers!

Many schools have expressed concerns about their bulbs getting damaged by the frost:

"Due to the extremely cold weather we are concerned that our plants might not survive" St. Mary's Catholic Primary School.

"It has been really cold. Will the bulbs grow?" Ysgol Porth Y Felin.

I've had a good chat with our Senior Gardener, Juliet, who works at St.Fagans and we both agree that the bulbs should be ok. There will be some bulbs damaged by the frost but daffodil and crocus bulbs are very tough - so most should be ok!

At this time of year the bulbs are tucked under the ground, so snow and ice isn't as damaging as it can be in the spring, when the delicate tips and flowers are out on show. So fingers crossed :-)

See more questions and answers below.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Professor Plant.